Delgo Review

A tedious and convoluted animated fantasy.

In Delgo, the fantastical realm of Jhamora is torn between two warring cultures: The winged Nohrin and the mystical, reptilian Lockni. Nohrin King Zahn (voiced by Lou Gossett, Jr.) exiles his sister Sedessa (Anne Bancroft) after she starts a war against the Lockni. She plots to avenge herself by usurping her brother's throne.

Years later, carefree but headstrong Lockni teenager Delgo (Freddie Prinze Jr.) encounters Zahn's spunky daughter Princess Kyla (Jennifer Love Hewitt), leading to a Romeo and Juliet-style star-crossed romance as the prejudices between their races conspire to keep them apart. Delgo sets out to rescue Kyla after she is captured by Sedessa and receives help from not only his goofy pal Filo (Chris Kattan) but also from an unlikely ally, Nohrin general Bogardus (Val Kilmer). Can Delgo save the princess and get the warring sides to ask themselves, "Can't we all just get along?"

Despite its lush colors, nice CG lighting, and textured costumes, Delgo is overall garish and tough on the eyes. As a work of animation, Delgo is like a "cutting edge" toon from the early '90s or, more accurately, a videogame (and not an especially good one). Characters' mobility is inconsistent, they all have dead eyes, and they lack any range of facial expression. Worse, they're all ugly; they look like rejects from a Star Wars prequel.

If you're going to make an animated kid's movie why not make characters that are cute and nice to look at? Even Shrek and The Nightmare Before Christmas, both of which featured less than cuddly protagonists, found a way to make their characters visually appealing. I'm sorry but Delgo himself looks like Shrek's penis with shoes.

The film boasts one of the strangest voice casts ever assembled, with only McDowell and Bancroft (who died three years before the film's release) being the standouts. The first voice cast recording happened back in 2003, which means that Delgo has been kicking around for five years. That's never a good sign.

The story is a convoluted mishmash of different fairy tale and fantasy elements, and borrows liberally from live-action film franchises such as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings but all to no avail. The movie is dead on arrival; it's dull, packed with uninteresting characters, lame humor, and needlessly confusing story elements. While it's nice and commendable to see an animated feature from an entity other than Pixar-Disney or DreamWorks, there's a reason why those studios have cornered the market on movie toons: They offer top notch production values and compelling stories with fun characters, none of which are to be found in Delgo.